Painting a life portrait digitally was definitely easier than painting one traditionally. So much time is saved when you don't have to change/wash brushes or deal with the physical complications of real paint. A traditional life portrait would've taken me probably three times as long to paint.
Originally, I wanted to paint something bold and impressionistic, but as the sessions went on, I realized my sensibility is not quite there yet--I'm still too chicken shit to throw all caution into the wind. I did make a conscious effort to allow my brush work to stay loose, suppressing the urge to blend away the brush marks. But the battle rages on--I still have to much to learn and need to work harder at being spontaneous.

I just saw it over at gfxartist.. her face can pass as a photo very good work. I think the dress should have some folds thought or maybe they cant be seen since the light is coming from the right.. ahh what am I talking about this is a great composition.

Impressive....most impressive. This is probably the nicest painting I've seen you do. Your attention to light and value changes is very nice. I promised myself I'd learn painter sooner or later. Is all this done on one layer with the oil brush or do you paint with something else and blend with the oil brush?

From life? NIce. I'm still learning how to improve in traditional painting. You are a braver soul than I. How many hours was each sitting? Doing it impressionistically wouldn't have shown your control over the program, especially in the face. thanks for sharing.

Very nice lighting and colors. You're a lucky man Robert. Don't let her get away from you.

I think you should do more life studies. I enjoyed this piece much more than your last adventuring party illustration. This one has more life in it than the other (even though they were both pretty static poses).

Very nice attention to details in her face and hands.

[front paged it for you, because it's just a marvelous work of light and beauty]

wow, I didn't expect answers so soon on a weekend. Thanks for the comments!

FUG1T1VE- There were very little folds, and they weren't very obvious in the lighting.

skyfinch- Got a pic of her?

Eric UNSL- Everything was painted on one layer. Except the beginning sketch--that was made into a multiply layer at first, so I can lay down the basic values/colors underneath it. Once I had that, I just flatten everything onto one layer. Painting on one layer only feels much more like traditional painting. I used only the Wet Gouache Round 30 brush in the Gouache category (resizing it as necessary), and the palette knife for the background and couch.

The first sitting was only a few hours, since the sky became overcast and stayed that way. The second sitting was several hours. Then I spend another few hours on it afte the life sessions.

I get comments about how my portraits are much better than my other paintings. I dunno why people say that. The two are completely different styles and purposes. Realistic portraits are done to capture a real person. My other paintings are painted out of my head, using my imagination only-and they are to tell stories. Of course the realistic stuff would seem to be more "skillful" because people tend to associate realism with skill. But the other paintings are FAR harder to paint, and take at least 10 to 20 times longer because you have to problem solve without the aid of existing reference for imaginary stuff. Personally, I'm more fond of my imaginary works.

Must join the others here and applaude your efforts you have really captured character in your wife beautifully, its a great piece of work.

The only very very small thing that stood out a tiny bit for me is her finger joints in her resting left hand, the shadow is perhaps a bit to dark with to strong a contrast, resulting in perhaps bit overly sharp finger joints most notably on her little finger.

But even with that it is only a small crit and I love the piece she looked like a photo on the front page

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